'Challenge list' stirs voting process in Elmont

An Elmont resident monitoring election polls in Nassau County's 3rd Legislative District today said he witnessed what looked like an illegal attempt to skew polling results at the Elmont Memorial Library — one of dozens of polling sites in the 3rd L.D.

Craig Forbes said he began monitoring polls at 7 a.m. this morning as part of a community-based task force recently created by Carrié Solages — the Democrat candidate for the county’s 3rd L.D. seat, who is running against Legislator John Ciotti — to protect voters from intimidation and fraud at the district’s polls.

Forbes said that around 7:30 a.m., a group of men entered the library and talked with board of elections officials, then left for about 30 minutes and returned with a list of names. The men attempted to submit that list of names to board of elections officials at the library, saying that the list included names of people who resided outside of the district and were not permitted to vote at that site, he added.

Although the elections workers looked at the list, which included between 30 and 40 names, Forbes said, they told the men that they weren't going to go by the list.

According to the Nassau County Board of Elections, however, elections workers have been instructed with proper procedures, including ignoring any list submitted by outside individuals and ensuring the board of elections' own documents of registered voters are upheld.

Forbes said that regardless of the board of elections' procedures, today's incident is alarming. "This isn’t just happening at one site," he said. "This is at every single polling site. Each person has a list. They are calling it the 'challenge list.'"

According to Forbes, who is planning to monitor three polling places in Elmont by the time the polls close this evening, a memo was sent to all democratic inspectors today, advising them to "ignore the 'challenge list.'"

Regarding any illegal activity at polls, poll monitors have been given a number for calling board of elections officials.

Related story: "Solages: task force will monitor 3rd L.D. voting" http://www.liherald.com/valleystream/valleystream/stories/Solages-task-force-will-monitor-3rd-LD-voting,36673

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